Free-standing pop-up card

I've been thinking about old favorites lately.  A past favorite technique is definitely the free-standing pop-up card.  It's a showstopper!  I combined it with a neglected stamp set: Fifth Avenue Floral.  Using this set with the SAB items (DSP, ribbon and brads) really gives it a fresh new look.  I stamped the flowers on two of the DSP patterns, cut them out, and then added Dazzling Details to the flower centers.

Making the base of this card was a piece of cake using the Simply Scored board!  You can find a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.

In the style of ponygirl40

One of our Creative Crew members is ponygirl40 (her real name is Lisa!). She has a beautiful vintage artsy style that I am so envious of! I created this card using a few of her signature moves: faux peeling wallpaper, watercoloring and pearls. I embossed the flower so that I could do a better job of watercoloring. I used Concord Crush ink and an aquapainter, and all the variation in tone came from that one ink! Supplies: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral; Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, First Edition DSP, Lap of Luxury DSP; Ink: Whisper White, Black StazOn, Concord Crush, Crumb Cake, VersaMark; Accessories: black EP, heat gun, sponge, Basic Black satin ribbon, sticky strip, pearl, decorative label punch, aquapainter Happy stamping!

Polished stone

Do you remember polished stone?  It seems like it's been forever since I did this one.  It's very dramatic!  I got the color combo from the Diva Coffee Break Designs blog: Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, Pear Pizzazz, Concord Crush.  I think the pear got a little lost in the other colors though.  I used gold smooch spritz to create the veining of the "stone"; it makes a great substitute for the metallic reinker!

Supplies: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Hodgepodge Happiness; Paper: glossy, Baja Breeze, Regal Rose; Ink: Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, black StazOn; Accessories: alcohol, gold smooch spritz, Concord Crush ribbon Happy stamping!

Bleached Manhattan Flower

This card started with a challenge from an SUO Challenges blog.  Their latest challenge was to use the Big Shot.  Now I'm the last demonstrator on the planet who doesn't own the Big Shot, but my downline Rhonda has a Cuttlebug and a couple of the embossing folders.  (She hooked me up with some more embossed stuff on Friday night.  Thanks, Rhonda!)  So I already had this embossed image from the Manhattan Flower embossing folder.  The cardstock is Elegant Eggplant, so I was trying to figure out what I could do with it to make the embossing stand out.  Suddenly I thought of bleach!  What if I painted the inside with bleach?  I didn't think to take a picture of what it looked like, but the bleached part turned pink.  Of course it was uneven and had some purple still in it, so I decided to color it with Melon Mambo marker.  I think the unevenness of the bleaching gives it a little depth.  I'm happy with it!

Then came the hard part--what to do with the flower!   I wanted the flower to stand out, so I ended up using a Crumb Cake cardbase.  I stamped a couple of the flowers from Fifth Avenue Floral in Eggplant and Melon then added some crochet trim and a piece of Eggplant cardstock.

Supplies: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral; Paper: Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant; Ink: Melon Mambo, Elegant Eggplant; Accessories: bleach, aquapainter, Manhattan Flower embossing folder, crochet trim, scallop trim border punch, pearls

Happy stamping!

Paper casting

This week's workshop wow is paper casting. Stick with me; it's so much easier than you think!
Before I get to the technique, let me say that I am so happy with how this card turned out!
I created the paper flower first then decided on my color combo. I really wanted to use the Daffodil Delight ribbon, so that was the starting point. Then I found the Melon Mambo DSP that was already cut to the right size! You might not be able to tell that I stamped the same flower image onto the DSP in all 3 colors. I decided that a tag would be the best background for the flower, and I also decided to give it some texture by using a bone folder and the cutter kit to rough it up as well as split off part of the bottom edge. I used a sponge dauber to add the color to the flower. I lightly sprayed the flower with gold smooch spritz and the tag with log cabin.

Now let's talk about the paper casting. The instructions came from here. Start with 5 sheets of toilet paper. Stack them on top of each other and wet them; I just wet it under the faucet. Get a little of the excess water out (if necessary) then lay it on top of your rubber image. Press it gently with your fingers to make sure it gets into all of the depressed areas. Let it sit until it becomes pretty solid. Then you can remove it from the stamp to dry completely. It was at least a couple of hours before I took mine off the stamp, then I let it dry overnight. Mine discolored slightly from the rubber, but you can't tell on the finished flower.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Perfect Punches; Paper: toilet paper, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP; Ink: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Old Olive; Accessories: gold foil and log cabin smooch spritz, Daffodil Delight 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Curly Label punch, 1/8" hole punch, cutter kit, sponge dauber
Happy stamping!

CAS grad card

Here's a clean and simple grad card I made this weekend. I was inspired by a card I saw on a blog, but then I couldn't find it again! The card base is Pretty in Pink spritzed with Pink Pirouette. The main piece has flowers from Fifth Avenue Floral stamped in Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Whisper White, Melon Mambo textured, Pretty in Pink; Ink: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo; Accessories: color spritzer tool, Pink Pirouette striped grosgrain ribbon
Happy stamping!

Floral embossed card

Last Friday night was craft night. Rhonda brought her Cuttlebug, and she was kind enough to let me use it with her SU embossing folders. This card uses the Manhattan Flowers folder which coordinates with the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. (Yes, I know everyone was using these long ago, and I'm behind the times!)
I sprayed the embossed piece with Gold Foil Smooch Spritz before cutting it out and adhering it to my card.

Here's the inside of my card. I wanted you to see how I attached the embossed piece to the rest of the card. I created a hinge out of Pacific Point cardstock and adhered it to the back of the embossed piece. Then I adhered it between the Whisper White piece and the So Saffron backing. That way it's barely noticeable.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral; Paper: Whisper White, So Saffron, Pacific Point textured; Ink: So Saffron, Pacific Point; Accessories: Manhattan Flower embossing folder, Gold Foil Smooch Spritz
Happy stamping!

Faux Reptile (Mama, don't look!)

This is the card I made Mama for Mother's Day. It's also for this week's workshop wow challenge: faux reptile. You can get details on the technique here.
Now this is not a card you'd expect to see faux reptile on, but I really wanted to use Fifth Avenue Floral. So I went outside of the box!
Here's how I made my flowers. Start with a paper towel. I put drops of reinker all over mine (like for the baby wipe technique) then I sprayed it with water to dilute the ink a little and make sure that the colors all came together. I dried it with a heat tool then let it sit for a while to make sure it was dry. Coat it all with VersaMark then emboss with clear EP.
I stamped the flower 3 times, and I cut out one full flower and 2 partial pieces for layering.

Here is a close-up look at the flower so you can see the texture and shine that makes it look reptile. Please try this technique; it's a fun one!

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Sanded; Paper: Whisper White, Baja Breeze, So Saffron; Ink: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Black StazOn; Accessories: paper towel, clear EP, heat tool, color spritzer, ticket corner punch, horizontal slot punch, Certainly Celery satin ribbon

Happy stamping!